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Prison staff accused of corruption at Rimutaka Prison will be exonerated by a report due to be released today, the Corrections Association predicts.
In December 2006, the Herald published allegations by two former prison officers that bribery and fraud were rife at Rimutaka, one of the country's biggest
prisons.
An initial Corrections Department investigation found support for allegations of corruption and that contraband had been smuggled into the prison, prompting the department to bring in barrister David Patten to carry out an investigation.
At least 11 officers serving at Rimutaka have been suspended at various times for various reasons in the past few months.
"I haven't seen the report, but I'm confident - as I represent a lot of these people - that none of our staff members have lost their jobs out of the corruption inquiry at that prison," Corrections Association president Bevan Hanlon said. "Yet if we go back 12 months through the headlines, apparently every person in that prison was bent and couldn't be trusted.
"We've had a serious amount of staff suspended on the word of prisoners, and the way they treated staff was absolutely disgraceful.
"Now they're going to come back and I'm confident it's going to say staff are actually doing a great job in difficult circumstances."
Allegations against Rimutaka officers have included claims that they smuggled cellphones, tobacco and drugs into the prison for inmates.
Mr Hanlon said the union had zero tolerance for corruption, which was why it had called on Corrections to fully investigate the allegations. However, a full police investigation into any criminal activity would have been preferable, he said.
Mr Hanlon said the union was working on obtaining redress for members cleared of corruption allegations, and was investigating whether Corrections was justified in suspending officers from Rimutaka. Corrections would not comment before the release of the report.
New Zealand First Corrections spokesman Ron Mark said he had no doubt some officers would be exonerated, but his concerns had always centred on prison management.
The report would be important for the future direction of Corrections, he said. "It will be interesting to read in the report just how deeply those allegations were investigated, or indeed any allegations further up the management chain," Mr Mark said.
"We're not blind to the fact that Corrections has had some serious problems in it.
"Rimutaka will be interesting because it is the first report in a series of investigations that have been conducted, and it will be interesting to see how many of those allegations were proven, how many were not, and what decisions have been made as a result."
* The findings will be made available on www.nzherald.co.nz tomorrow, after they are made public.
